Sandisk Sansa

Hello, everyone- I've been gone from this site for a while. Glad to see there's now a portable audio section.

I'm in the market for an MP3 player (1g-2g) and I'm leaning toward the Sandisk Sansa. However, I'm open to other recommendations as well.

I was looking specifically at the c150 and c250. They seem very similar with the exception of the 250 having a lithium ion battery and the 150 having a regular AAA. I like the AAA option because I already have a charger for rechargeable AAA batteries.

Any feedback on any of these players?

Any other recommendations?

I like the iPods and their ease of use and size, but I just hear too many bad things about issues with them.

We have a couple of the 1 gig M240s.

Do we like 'em? Well, I'm about to upgrade to the four gig unit. What do you think?

One of the main reasons I went for 'em is because they DO use inexpensive, easily obtainable and easily replaceable AAA batteries. I get about 15 - 20 hours on an alkaline AAA. Figure on considerably less if you use rechargeables. When I get the "low battery" message I simply pop in a new AAA. I'm good to go in less than a minute (assuming you keep a spare handy).

I see kids at school with ipods and when they run out of juice they simply stop and have to run to their charger and wait for it to charger up. Not a biggie, but a bit of a pain.

Sound wise, I have 243 songs (wma) on my one gig unit and the sound through my Koss Porta Pro headphones is excellent. When I play it through a big stereo, the highs are slightly, just slightly muted.

The FM is about as good as it gets on a portable but a long headphone lead helps.

I won, and decided to keep, an M240 back in May - man I'm glad I did. My MiniDisc player crapped out, my wife's Ipod crapped out (but was replaced under warranty) and I was without music for my morning/evening runs for about 5 weeks...if you saw how fat my ass was in May you'd realize how bad I needed a portable player.

I really like it - 1 GB is way more than enough music for several hours, I use WMA's - some players still don't. No frills, just plays music, plays it well. The included ear buds aren't bad either.

It's extremely battery friendly too. Dunno if it's the best out there, but it's certainly one of the most popular in most of the stores I visit because of it's price and features.

Thanks for your responses! Good to know about the m240. Some of those are dirt cheap since they are a bit of an older model- I'll have to keep an eye out for one.

I do like the flexibility of a AAA battery- so much more convenient than charging some proprietary battery.

One more quick question- how do you hook it up to your receiver if you want some background music at a party or something like that? Is it just an RCA-type cable that plugs into the headphone jack in the player?

It's really high tech.

Believe it or not, I picked up a 1/8" stereo mini plug the two RCA plug cable at a dollar store. It's about 6' long and the RCA's go into an "AUX" unpiut on the receiver and the mini plug goes into the Sansa'a headphone jack.

hmm, i like the sansa's as the best iPod alternative, but have you checked up the new 2G nano? aluminum shell, so no more scratches... the battery lasts nearly a whole day, so it won't crap out on you mid jog/day... brighter screen, gapless playback, search feature...

i did check into the new ipods; however, i'm still against them because so many of my friends have them and something has gone wrong. i think they are great if they could last, but i would rather spend half the cash and still be able to hear my music just as well.

i also read articles about the reliability rate and life on ipods- not too impressive.